Job numbers not pretty

Startling total of 200 new positions in nation

OTTAWA — Trouble in Canada’s anemic jobs market continued into July as a paltry 200 jobs were added during the month, falling spectacularly short of expectations.

Economists thought the economy would bounce back from the unexpected 9,400-job decline in June and add around 20,000 new jobs in July.

RICHARD BUCHAN / THE CANADIAN PRESS

But Statistics Canada came out with a much lower figure Friday. Between June and July, the number of full-time jobs fell by 59,700 while part-time jobs increased by 60,000.

Manitoba was one of the few bright spots in Statistics Canada’s monthly labour-force survey as additional jobs in this province pushed Manitoba’s unemployment rate down 0.3 per cent to 5.1 per cent.

There was even a slight increase in the participation rate — the percentage of the population either in the workforce or looking for work — from 67.8 to 68 per cent.

According to Statistics Canada there were 637,300 people working in the province in July up from 632,100 in June.

Even a slight dip in the unemployment rate came with a big asterisk. Statistics Canada reported the jobless rate fell one-tenth of a point to 7.0 per cent for the month — but only because 35,400 people stopped looking for work.

The participation rate, the percentage of working-age people with jobs or looking for work, declined to 65.9 per cent from 66.1 per cent in June. That’s the lowest it’s been since late 2001, BMO senior economist Benjamin Reitzes noted in a report.

Canada’s job numbers have been unpredictable of late, Finance Minister Joe Oliver acknowledged during a news conference in Toronto.

"Each monthly number is turning out to be fairly volatile," he said. "This month there were more part-time jobs created, last month it was the reverse, the previous month it was a reverse of that."

Over the past 12 months, the economy has added 115,300 new jobs — or 0.7 per cent of the labour force — with all the growth in part-time work.

"Canada is rapidly becoming a nation of part-timers," said Paul Ashworth, chief North American economist at Capital Economics in Toronto.

"Over the past 12 months, full-time employment has actually declined by a cumulative 3,100, while part-time employment has increased by 118,500."

"These anemic job numbers are alarming. Not only have no full-time jobs been created on balance over the last year, but Canadians are now quitting the labour market in record numbers," he said in an emailed statement.

"How does this government explain a labour-force participation rate at its lowest level in 13 years? Canadians have been looking for quality, decent-paying jobs, and now far too many are being forced to give up."

Most of the month’s job losses came in construction, health care and social assistance. However, employment in educational services and in information, culture and recreation rose in July.

The majority of new jobs were concentrated among people between the ages of 15 and 24, Statistics Canada says, while there were losses among people aged 55 and older.

Regionally, Newfoundland and Labrador and Manitoba were the only provinces to show job growth, while employment fell in New Brunswick. The rest of the provinces remained mostly unchanged.

— The Canadian Press

Stats by province

Canada’s national unemployment rate was 7.0 per cent in July. Here’s what happened provincially (previous month in brackets):

❚ Newfoundland 11.9 (12.5)

❚ Prince Edward Island 9.4 (9.8)

❚ Nova Scotia 9.1 (8.7)

❚ New Brunswick 9.8 (9.6)

❚ Quebec 8.1 (8.1)

❚ Ontario 7.4 (7.5)

❚ Manitoba 5.1 (5.4)

❚ Saskatchewan 3.3 (3.9)

❚ Alberta 4.5 (4.9)

❚ British Columbia 6.1 (6.2)

Stats by big city

The national unemployment rate was 7.0 per cent in July. Statistics Canada also released seasonally adjusted, three-month moving average unemployment rates for major cities but cautions the figures may fluctuate widely because they are based on small statistical samples. (Previous month in brackets.)

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